Employers should have access to at least one end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) before apprentices start their programme, the body responsible for apprenticeship standards and assessment has said today. The “best practice” recommendation, made in a new ‘Quality Strategy’ unveiled by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education today, has been made despite there currently being…

A university has called for the scrapping of an apprenticeship funding rule that stops them from using unspent levy funds to support local businesses. The University of East London delivers apprenticeships to large employers, but after missing out on a non-levy allocation they have to turn small employers away. One solution would be to share…

A training provider has been heavily criticised for not knowing accurately enough who their apprentices are, in an Ofsted monitoring report which rated it ‘insufficient’ across the board. Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was today accused of failing to understand what constitutes a “high quality apprenticeship programme”. Ofsted found that managers are “unable to provide…

The division responsible for running and promoting apprenticeships within the Department for Education employs the lowest proportion of apprentices across the whole department. Of the 519 people working within the DfE’s Higher and Further Education office, fewer than 10, which is less than 1 per cent, are apprentices. It is not clear the exact number…

Employers should be allowed to appeal for more time to spend their apprenticeship levy funds if the standards they want to use are still in development, the Confederation of British Industry has said. Its new report, ‘Getting apprenticeships right: next steps’, published today, calls on the government to introduce a process for such employers to…

Management standards are continuing their reign as the most popular apprenticeships, according to the first statistics for 2018/19 published by the Department for Education this week. The team leader/supervisor had the most starts of any standard in the first quarter of the year, while three other management standards were among the 20 most popular. They…

Apprenticeships found to be planned with less than the minimum 20 per cent off-the-job training will be “ineligible and all funding would be recovered”, FE Week can reveal. The off-the-job training policy has prompted controversy and confusion since it was introduced in 2017. In an attempt to provide some clarity, the Department for Education published…

2019 is set to be a big year for the FE and skills sector. While it’s still not clear what impact the biggest event of the year – Brexit – will have (on anything!), we’ve taken a look ahead at some of the other key developments expected over the coming 12 months – including the…

The skills minister has vowed to “dig deeper” into the drop in level two apprenticeships, and whether it might be linked to the rise in management courses. Anne Milton was speaking exclusively to FE Week following a parliamentary debate on apprenticeships and skills at which the issue was raised. “We need to understand exactly what’s…

The Institute for Apprenticeships is “considering” releasing a presentation given to employers that warned of an imminent apprenticeship overspend. The admission came in a letter, sent today, from its boss Sir Gerry Berragan, in response to a request from shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden. “We are considering the request and will respond as soon as…

The government has today published its response to the education select committee’s report, The apprenticeships ladder of opportunity: quality not quantity”, published in October. Here are seven of the key findings from the response: Discounted transport for apprentices won’t arrive anytime soon Last year the Conservative party’s general election manifesto promised to introduce “significantly discounted…